(banner picture: [Doraemon v1, pp.78-79, by Fujiko F Fujio, published by Shogakukan English Comics])
<aside> 🧭
Blog Navigation
Homepage 🏡
Music 🎶🔊
Sitemap 🗺️
</aside>
“Alright, so this manga stuff seems pretty interesting, and I’ve found some titles which seem neat but they haven’t been translated into English yet… I don’t know much Japanese, but I’d like to be able to read those untranslated titles one day. What should I do? Is there anything in the middle that can help me improve? 🤔”
Whereas the usual volume of manga translated into English only contains English text with latin letters, and the original volume of Japanese manga contains only Japanese text with kanji and kana characters, bilingual manga includes both the original Japanese text and English-translations on the same pages, which allows readers to view characters’ dialogue and story narration in both languages (Another term for bilingual is ‘parallel text’)
It’s like a having a Rosetta stone in the palms of your hands!
Unfortunately, bilingual manga are typically not stocked on the shelves of public libraries (at least the ones in my local areas). Although this makes sense given that a library’s stocked books need to be affordable, have high circulation potential, and be available from suppliers, I nevertheless believe that having a few bilingual volumes of manga available to borrow would be appreciated by any reader who enjoys the format.
Since commencing my Library course(s), I have obtained way too many books… including some really cool copies of bilingual manga, which are shown below. I guess this page is a bit of a show(-off) and tell haha. Notice that Japanese text is included in the gutters of the pages of the below volumes, and English text is contained in the panels’ speech bubbles.
Doraemon (ドラえもん) [Doraemon v1, by Fujiko F Fujio, published by Shogakukan English Comics]
Intended audience: All ages/Kodomo (Children)
^No age rating is included on the front or back covers, but this is not much of a problem since the content is appropriate for all ages.
Since Doraemon is a kodomo/kids’ title, the Japanese text is simpler in both grammar and vocab, and much of the kanji is replaced by easier-to-read kana.
Ghost in the Shell (攻殻機動隊**/Koukaku kidoutai)** [The Ghost in the Shell, by Masamune Shirow, published by Kodansha Bilingual Comics]
Intended audience: Mature readers (18+)
^Unfortunately, no age rating is included on the front or back covers, which is a severe problem since GiTS contains strong language, violence, and nudity.
In line with the intended mature audience of GiTS, the Japanese text is abundant with complicated kanji characters.
The kanji in GiTS also seem to lack furigana, so it’s difficult to know their correct readings or pronunciations.
(INCLUDE PICS OF THE FOLLOWING: Man Machine Interface, Love Hina v4, Kimi no Na ha v1, Darling ha Gaikokujin in English, Nodame Candabile v1. Can do 1x2 columns for Darling ha Gaikokujin and MMI since they are unique and i want to show off the text up close, then 1x3 for Kimi no Na ha, Love Hina, and Nodame since they are pretty much the same)
My Darling is a Foreigner [ダーリンは外国人 in English, created by Saori Oguri and translated by Tony Laszlo, published by Yukio Saito of Media Factory inc.]
Man Machine Interface [攻殻機動隊 v2: Man Machine Interface, created by Shirow Masamune and translated by Frederick L. Schodt, published by Kodansha Bilingual Comics]
Kimi no na ha [Kimi no na ha v1, written by Makoto Shinkai and illustrated by kazuma, published by Kadokawa]
Love Hina [Love Hina v4, by Ken Akamatsu, published by Kodansha Bilingual Comics]
Nodame Cantabile [Nodame Cantabile v1, by Tomoko Ninomiya, published by Kodansha Bilingual Comics]
Tbh I don’t know where to buy bilingual manga from retail outlets and have never seen a bilingual tankoubon sold at a major English-title bookstore franchise like Dymocks, QBD, etc. ~~Not even Kinokuniya seems to list any bilingual manga for sale~~ CORRECTION: Kinokuniya does sell bilingual manga titles, but you need to search for “バイリンガル版” or “バイリンガルコミック“ in their catalogue rather than “bilingual manga”. The fact that they can only be found via a Japanese search query might be because they are created for native Japanese speakers to practice English, rather than for native English speakers to practice Japanese.
Bilingual Doraemon was sold to me secondhand by a FB marketplace seller; I bought Ghost in the Shell from eBay, and in both cases was really lucky that the books were not exorbitantly priced. Both Doraemon and Ghost in the Shell are also available brand new from Kinokuniya,
If you can find an affordable deal on bilingual manga, go for it! Sometimes Hondarake, a secondhand Japanese bookstore in the Sydney CBD, sells bilingual tankoubon (definitely worth a visit even if you’re not into manga because the owner is super friendly and cool). Otherwise, bilingual comics can probably be bought online from eBay, Amazon, CDJapan, JPBooks, etc.
Some bilingual book series/publication imprints and their respective titles include:
These titles are also complemented by Japanese-to-English (and vice versa) dictionaries and bilingual visual dictionaries